Systems and methods for modifying fast-forward speeds based on the user&#39;s reaction time when detecting points of interest in content

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described for modifying a fast-forwarding speed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame of interest is detected. A media guidance application may receive a command from a user to fast-forward through a media asset and may execute a fast-forwarding operation through frames of the media asset. The media guidance application may detect that the fast-forwarding operation is approaching a frame of interest to the viewer. The media guidance application may reduce the fast-forwarding speed to a second speed slower than the first speed, where the second speed is determined based on an estimated reaction time of the user. The media guidance application may receive a command to resume playback from the user while the fast-forwarding operation is occurring at the second speed and may play back the media asset at a default playback speed from a point corresponding to a moment when the command was received.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/858,757, filed on Dec. 29, 2017. The disclosure of this applicationis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Modifying a resumption point in a fast-forward operation during playbackof a media asset based on a reaction time of a user is a technique usedto help the user resume playback at the user's intended playbackposition when approaching a frame of interest in the media asset. Therelated art describes various ways of rewinding content to correct forthe user overshooting the intended play position when issuing a commandto resume playback during a fast-forwarding operation. For example, therelated art describes systems that play back content a threshold amountof time (e.g., 30 seconds) before the time at which the user issues acommand to resume content (e.g., a command to “play” when in afast-forwarding operation). Typical media applications correct potentialplayback commands that overshoot the intended playback position but failto consider adjusting a fast-forward operation itself to avoidovershooting an intended playback position.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are provided herein for modifying a fast-forwardingspeed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame of interest isdetected. For example, a media guidance application may receive afast-forward command from a user to fast-forward through content. Whenthe system detects a frame of interest is approaching (e.g., animportant scene in the content, or a scene the user would be likely toenjoy), the media guidance application may reduce the fast-forward speedto a speed determined based on the user's reaction time to allowplayback to resume at the user's requested location without correctionin the media asset when the user resumes playback (e.g., presses the“play” button on the remote controller).

To this end and others, in some aspects of the disclosure, a mediaguidance application may receive a command from a user to fast-forwardthrough a media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a command from a user (e.g., the user selecting the“fast-forward” button on a remote controller) to fast-forward through amedia asset (e.g., the movie, Kill Bill Volume 1).

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application receives thecommand, the media guidance application may execute a fast-forwardingoperation through frames of the media asset at a first speed. Forexample, the media guidance application may fast-forward through framesof the media asset (e.g., Kill Bill Volume 1) at a first speed (e.g., 3times as fast as the normal speed).

The media guidance application may detect that the fast-forwardingoperation is approaching a frame of interest to the viewer. For example,the media guidance application may detect, based on the metadata of themedia asset, an upcoming frame of interest to the viewer.

In response to detecting that the fast-forwarding operation isapproaching the frame of interest, the media guidance application mayreduce the fast-forwarding speed to a second speed slower than the firstspeed. For example, when the media guidance application detects anapproaching frame of interest, the media guidance application may reducethe fast-forwarding speed to a second speed (e.g., 1.5×) slower than thefirst speed (e.g., 3×).

In some embodiments, when determining the second speed, the mediaguidance application may retrieve, from a profile for the user, aplurality of reaction times of the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from a profile for the user, a plurality ofreaction times of the user (e.g., reaction times related to when theuser resumes playback of the media asset).

In some embodiments, when retrieving, from the profile for the user, theplurality of reaction times of the user, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve, from a database, a plurality of data entries correspondingto rewind operations, where each rewind operation was initiated by theuser within a predetermined time after the user issued an operation toresume playback during a fast-forward operation. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve, from a database that stores commandhistories, a plurality of data entries that correspond to rewindoperations.

The media guidance application may determine, from a data entry in theplurality of data entries, a number of frames in a plurality of framesthat the user rewinds through before resuming playback of the mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may determine thenumber of frames by multiplying the total time of playback the userrewinds through by the frames per second characteristic of the mediaasset.

The media guidance application may determine from the number of framesthe plurality of reaction times. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine the plurality of reaction times from thenumber of frames by assigning each number of frames at a specific rewindspeed in a rewind operation to be a reaction time.

In some embodiments when the media guidance application calculates, fromthe reaction times, the estimated reaction time of the user, the mediaguidance application may determine, from the data entry, a length oftime of the rewind operation. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, from the number of frames rewound and theframes per second characteristic, a length of time of the rewindoperation.

The media guidance application may calculate, from the number of framesand the length of time of the rewind operation, a reaction time of theuser in a plurality of reaction times of the user. For example, themedia guidance application may calculate the reaction time (e.g., 1second) from the length of time, the number of frames of the rewindoperation, and the rewind speed.

The media guidance application may determine, from the plurality ofreaction times of the user, an average reaction time of the user,wherein the average reaction time is the estimated reaction time. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine from the pluralityof reaction times of the user (e.g., 1 second, 1.5 seconds, 2 seconds,0.5 seconds, 1 second) an average reaction time of the user (e.g., 1second).

The media guidance application may calculate, from the reaction times,an estimated reaction time of the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may calculate, using the average reaction time of the user,the estimated reaction time of the user.

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application is calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time of the user, themedia guidance application may retrieve, from a profile for the user, acurrent age of the user. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve, from the profile for the user, the current age of the user(e.g., 75 years old).

The media guidance application may retrieve, from the profile, at leastone reaction time of the user when an age of the user was the currentage of the user. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve, from the profile, at least one reaction time (e.g., 3 seconds)when the age of the user was the current age of the user (e.g., 75 yearsold).

The media guidance application may adjust the reaction time of the userto an adjusted reaction time based on the current age of the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may adjust the reaction time ofthe user (e.g., 3 seconds) to an adjusted reaction time (e.g., 5seconds) based on the current age of the user (e.g., 75 years old).

The media guidance application may assign the adjusted reaction time tobe the estimated reaction time of the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may assign the adjusted reaction time to be theestimated reaction time (e.g., 5 seconds).

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application is calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time of the user, themedia guidance application may determine a time when the command fromthe user to fast-forward through the media asset was received. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine the time (e.g., 11pm) when the command from the user to fast-forward through the mediaasset was received.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a database of times,where each time has a corresponding reaction time factor, a reactiontime factor. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve,from a database of times, a reaction time factor (e.g., a reaction timefactor of 1.5× for 11 pm).

The media guidance application may calculate, using the reaction timefactor and the reaction times, a corresponding reaction time, where thecorresponding reaction time is the estimated reaction time. For example,the media guidance application may calculate, using the reaction timefactor (e.g., 1.5×) and the reaction times (e.g., 2 seconds), acorresponding reaction time (e.g., 3 seconds).

In response to calculating the estimated reaction time of the user, themedia guidance application may determine a second speed from theestimated reaction time of the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a second speed (e.g., 1.2×) from the estimatedreaction time of the user (e.g., 3 seconds) by retrieving a speedcorresponding to the estimated reaction time of the user from a lookuptable.

The media guidance application may receive a command to resume playbackfrom the user while the fast-forwarding operation is occurring at thesecond speed. For example, the media guidance application may receive acommand to resume playback (e.g., the user presses the “play” button ona remote controller) from the user while the fast-forwarding operationis occurring at the second speed.

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application receives thecommand to resume playback from the user while the fast-forwardingoperation is occurring at the second speed, the media guidanceapplication may determine a threshold number of frames, wherein thethreshold number of frames is a predetermined number of frames beforethe frame of interest to the viewer. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine the threshold number of frames (e.g., 100)based on the user's viewing history before the frame of interest to theviewer.

The media guidance application may determine that the user does not sendthe command to resume playback within the threshold number of frames.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the userdoes not send the command to resume playback (e.g., the user does notpress the “play” button on the remote controller) within the thresholdnumber of frames (e.g., 100).

The media guidance application may increase the fast-forwarding speedfrom the second speed to the first speed. For example, the mediaguidance application may increase the fast-forward speed from the secondspeed (e.g., 1.5×) to the first speed (e.g., 3×).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive acommand from the user that overrides the command to fast-forward at thesecond speed. For example, the media guidance application may receive acommand from the user that overrides the command to fast-forward at thesecond speed (e.g., the user presses the “fast-forward” button on theremote controller).

The media guidance application may determine, based on the overridecommand, a third speed. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on the override command (e.g., how many times the userhas pressed the “fast-forward” button), a third speed (e.g., 2×).

The media guidance application may increase the fast-forwarding speedfrom the second speed to the third speed. For example, the mediaguidance application may increase the fast-forwarding speed from thesecond speed (e.g., 1.5×) to the third speed (e.g., 2×).

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application reduces thefast-forwarding to the second speed, the media guidance application maydetermine a threshold number of frames from a current frame, where theframe is a potential frame of interest. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a threshold number of frames (e.g., 100frames) from a current frame, where the frame is a potential frame ofinterest (e.g., a frame showing an action scene in Kill Bill Volume 1).

The media guidance application may generate for display the potentialframe of interest within an overlay on top of the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may generate for display thepotential frame of interest (e.g., the frame showing an action scene inKill Bill Volume 1) within an overlay on top of the media asset (e.g.,an overlay on top of the Kill Bill Volume 1 movie).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve, fromthe profile, preferences for the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from the profile, preferences for the user(e.g., the user's favorite genres, actors/actresses, social mediapreferences, etc.).

The media guidance application may determine, from metadata for the atleast one frame within a plurality of frames, characteristics of theframe. For example, the media guidance application may determinecharacteristics of the frame from the metadata (e.g., title, genre,etc.) of the frame.

The media guidance application may compare the characteristics of the atleast one frame with the preferences for the user. For example, themedia guidance application may compare the characteristics of the atleast one frame (e.g., actors/actresses in the frame, genre, scene,etc.) with the preferences for the user (e.g., user's favoriteactors/actresses).

The media guidance application may determine, from the comparison, thepotential frame of interest. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the frame that contains the user's favorite actress(e.g., Lucy Liu) is the potential frame of interest.

The media guidance application may generate for display a previewoverlay over the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display a preview overlay (e.g., an overlaydisplaying an image over the middle of the media asset being displayed)over the media asset (e.g., Kill Bill Volume 1).

The media guidance application may generate for display, in the previewoverlay, frames later in time than a current point of thefast-forwarding operation, wherein the frames in the preview overlay areupdated according to a preview frequency that is set to an initialpreview frequency. For example, the media guidance application maygenerate for display, in the preview overlay, frames later in time(e.g., the Crazy 88 fight scene) than a current point of thefast-forward operation (e.g., the Bride waking up from her coma),wherein the frames in the preview overlay are updated according to apreview frequency (e.g., once every 5 seconds) that is set to an initialpreview frequency (e.g., once every 5 seconds).

The media guidance application may detect that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a first frequency threshold of theframe of interest. For example, the media guidance application maydetect that the current point of the fast-forwarding operation is withina first frequency threshold (e.g., once every 5 seconds) of the frame ofinterest.

In response to detecting that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within the first frequency threshold of the frame ofinterest, the media guidance application may adjust the previewfrequency so that frames in the preview overlay are changed more oftenthan when at the initial preview frequency. For example, the mediaguidance application may adjust the preview frequency so that frames inthe preview overlay are changed more often (e.g., once every second)than when at the initial preview frequency (e.g., once every 5 seconds).

The media guidance application may detect that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a second frequency threshold of theframe of interest. For example, the media guidance application maydetect that the current point of the fast-forwarding operation is withina second frequency of the frame of interest (e.g., once every second).

In response to detecting that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within the second frequency threshold of the frame ofinterest, the media guidance application may restore the previewfrequency to the initial preview frequency. For example, the mediaguidance application may restore the preview frequency (e.g., once everysecond) to the initial preview frequency (e.g., once every 5 seconds).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The below and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of modifying a fast-forwardingspeed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame of interest isdetected, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) device,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for modifying afast-forwarding speed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame ofinterest is detected, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for modifying afast-forwarding speed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame ofinterest is detected, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for retrieving,from the profile for the user, the plurality of reaction times of theuser, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for receiving thecommand to resume playback from the user while the fast-forwardingoperation is occurring at the second speed, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for executing thefast-forwarding operation, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are provided herein for modifying a fast-forwardingspeed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame of interest isdetected. A media guidance application may receive a command from a userto fast-forward through a media asset. In response to receiving thecommand, the media guidance application may execute a fast-forwardingoperation through frames of the media asset at a first speed. The mediaguidance application may detect that the fast-forwarding operation isapproaching a frame of interest to the viewer. In response to detectingthat the fast-forwarding operation is approaching the frame of interest,the media guidance application may reduce the fast-forwarding speed to asecond speed slower than the first speed, where the second speed isdetermined based on an estimated reaction time of the user. The mediaguidance application may receive a command to resume playback from theuser while the fast-forwarding operation is occurring at the secondspeed. Additionally, the media guidance application may play back themedia asset at a default playback speed from a point corresponding to amoment when the command was received.

Although the below and above disclosure describes in detail systems andmethods for modifying a fast-forwarding speed based on a reaction timeof a user when a frame of interest is detected in relation to afast-forward operation, the disclosure equally applies to a rewindoperation scenario as well.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of modifying a fast-forwardingspeed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame of interest isdetected, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 1depicts user equipment 100, which may include control circuitry thatexecutes a media guidance application on any user equipment. Thefunctionality of user equipment, control circuitry, and the mediaguidance application is described in further detail below with respectto FIGS. 2-5.

The media guidance application may be playing back media asset 102 onuser equipment 100. The media guidance application may generate fordisplay trick play bar 104 over media asset 102; trick play bar 104 maycontain trick play functionalities 106 (e.g., play, pause, stop, rewind,fast-forward, etc.). The media guidance application may receive acommand from a user to fast-forward through a media asset. In responseto receiving the command, the media guidance application may execute afast-forwarding operation through frames of media asset 102 at firstspeed 108. At position 110 in playback, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display overlay 112.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay a frame corresponding to position 110 in playback in overlay112. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generatefor display upcoming frame of interest 132 in overlay 112 correspondingto a frame from media asset 102. As referred to herein, a “frame ofinterest” refers to a frame or a segment of frames of media asset 102that the media guidance application determines may be of interest to theuser. For example, a frame of interest may be a scene in media asset 102pivotal to the plot (e.g., Beatrix Kiddo receiving a Hattori Hanzosamurai sword in Kill Bill Vol. 1), or may be a scene with the user'sfavorite actor or actress in it (e.g., the first scene that featuresLucy Liu, the user's favorite actress, in Kill Bill Vol. 1), etc.

At position 114 in playback, the media guidance application may generatefor display overlay 116. The media guidance application may determinethat position 114 is a preset amount of frames in the future fromposition 110. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maygenerate for display a frame corresponding to position 114 in playbackin overlay 116. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maygenerate for display a frame in overlay 116 corresponding to upcomingframe of interest 132 from media asset 102.

In response to detecting that the fast-forwarding operation isapproaching frame of interest 132, the media guidance application mayreduce the fast-forwarding speed (e.g., first speed 108) to second speed118. The media guidance application may determine that second speed 118is slower than first speed 108. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that first speed 108 is three times the normalplayback speed and second speed 118 is one and a half times the normalplayback speed.

At positions 120, 124, and 128 in playback, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display overlays 122, 126, and 130,respectively. The media guidance application may determine thatpositions 120, 124, and 128 in playback are a set amount of frames apartfrom each other in playback (e.g., 100 frames apart from each other).The media guidance application may determine that position 128 isfarther in the future than positions 124 and 120, and the media guidanceapplication may determine that position 124 is farther in the futurethan position 120.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay a frame corresponding to position 114 in playback in overlay116. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generatefor display a different frame in each of overlays 122, 126 and 128corresponding to positions 120, 124, and 128 respectively. The mediaguidance application may determine that each different frame in overlays122, 126, and 128 corresponds to upcoming frame of interest 132 inplayback of media asset 102.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application may receive a commandfrom a user to fast-forward through a media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the received command corresponds to afast-forward operation. For example, the media guidance application candetermine, from interpreting an infrared signal sent from a remotecontrol in response to the user pressing a button corresponding to acommand, that the signal corresponds to the fast-forward command. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive a command from auser (e.g., the user selecting the “fast-forward” button on a remotecontroller) to fast-forward through a media asset (e.g., the movie, KillBill Volume 1). As another example, the media guidance application mayreceive a voice command from a user (e.g., a voice command from the userto fast-forward) to fast-forward through media asset 102. The mediaguidance application may process the voice command using an interactivevoice system (e.g., the Amazon Alex, Siri, Google Home, etc.). Othermanners in which the media guidance application receives commands from auser are described below in further detail with respect to FIGS. 2-5.

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application receives thecommand, the media guidance application may execute a fast-forwardingoperation through frames of media asset 102 at first speed 108. Themedia guidance application may determine first speed 108 based oninterpreting the user command. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, from the number of times that the userpresses the fast-forward button on a remote controller, first speed 108(e.g., the fast-forward speed increases the more the user presses thefast-forward button).

The media guidance application may determine that the fast-forward speedmay be either linearly or exponentially related to the number of timesthe user presses the fast-forward button on the remote controller. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that thefast-forward speed is either linearly or exponentially related, based ona default setting for the remote and user equipment 100.

For example, the media guidance application may fast-forward throughframes of media asset 102 (e.g., Kill Bill Volume 1) at first speed 108(e.g., 3 times as fast (3×) as the normal speed (1×)) after determiningthat the user pressed the fast-forward button three times (e.g., thefast-forward speed is linearly related to the number of times the userpresses the fast-forward button on the remote controller).

The media guidance application may detect that the fast-forwardingoperation is approaching a frame of interest to the user. The mediaguidance application may determine that points of interest in mediaasset 102 are marked in the metadata of media asset 102, or accessiblefrom a database that stores frames of interest and their correspondingpositions in media asset 102. The media guidance application maydetermine that the frames of interest are editor-defined oruser-defined, or a combination of the two.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatframes of interest are editor-defined. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve metadata for media asset 102 from guidance data source 518.The media guidance application may determine, from the metadata,editor-defined frames of interest in media asset 102 (e.g., importantscenes, famous scenes, etc.).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatframes of interest are expressly or implicitly user-defined. The mediaguidance application may determine the frames of interest from userpreferences, crowdsourcing, the user's viewing history, or user-markedframes and segments, or any combination of the above.

For example, the media guidance application may determine the frames ofinterest from user preferences. The media guidance application mayretrieve, from the profile, preferences for the user. For instance, themedia guidance application may retrieve the user's favorite actors,characters in media asset 102, favorite genres, favorite scenes, etc.The media guidance application may compare the preferences for the userto metadata for media asset 102, and determine matches in the metadatawith the user preferences (e.g., the metadata's actor field matches theuser's favorite actor for three distinct scenes in media asset 102, andthe frames in those scenes are marked as frames of interest).

As another example, the media guidance application may determine theframes of interest from crowdsourcing. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve social media data corresponding to media asset 102 (e.g.,using a web-crawler that locates instances on social media where thetitle of media asset 102 was mentioned). The media guidance applicationmay determine, from the social media data, frames of interest in mediaasset 102. For example, the media guidance application may determinefrom the tone, content, and context of the social media data (e.g., aTweet on the social media website Twitter stating, “The O-Ren Ishii andBeatrix Kiddo fight scene in Kill Bill is pivotal to the plot!”), framesof interest in media asset 102 (e.g., the O-Ren Ishii and Beatrix Kiddofight scene in Kill Bill Volume 1). The media guidance application maydetermine the frames of interest in media asset 102 by comparing keywords (e.g., “Kill Bill”, “O-Ren Ishii”, “Beatrix Kiddo”, “fight”, etc.)from the social media data with the metadata, and determining the framescorresponding to the metadata that matches the keywords.

As yet another example, the media guidance application may determineframes of interest from the user's viewing history. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the user's viewing history from the profile.The media guidance application may determine from the viewing historywhether the user has previously watched media asset 102 (e.g., bydetermining if there is an entry for media asset 102 in the user'sviewing history database). In response to determining that the user haspreviously watched media asset 102, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the user rewatched certain portions of media asset 102multiple times (e.g., from the timestamp data in the viewing historydatabase). In the event that the user rewatched certain portions ofmedia asset 102 multiple times (e.g., the user rewatched the O-Ren Ishiiand Beatrix Kiddo fight scene five times in a row), the media guidanceapplication may tag the frames corresponding to the rewatched portionsas frames of interest.

As another example, the media guidance application may determine framesof interest from user-marked frames and segments. The media guidanceapplication may assign a command (e.g., a button on the remote) to tag asegment as frame of interest 132. For example, the media guidanceapplication may assign the red button on the remote (e.g., which may bea default setting) to correspond to a command that tags a segment ofmedia asset 102 as frame of interest 132. The media guidance applicationmay detect the user pressing the red button a first time. At this pointin playback, the media guidance application may tag the correspondingframe and all subsequent frames as frames of interest until the userpresses the button a second time (e.g., the first pressing of the buttonbegins the tagging and the second pressing of the button ends thetagging to create a segment of user-marked frames of interest).

The media guidance application may determine that the fast-forwardingoperation is approaching frame of interest 132 to the viewer when frameof interest 132 is within a threshold number of frames, which may be adefault number of frames determined by an editor, from the current framein the fast-forwarding operation. The media guidance application maycheck each upcoming frame within the threshold number of frames todetermine whether the frame is tagged as frame of interest 132.

For example, the media guidance application may detect that thefast-forwarding operation is approaching an editor-defined frame ofinterest by determining, from the metadata, that an editor-defined frameof interest is within a threshold number of frames from the currentframe in the fast-forwarding operation (e.g., within 2400 frames).

In response to detecting that the fast-forwarding operation isapproaching frame of interest 132, the media guidance application mayreduce the fast-forwarding speed to second speed 118 slower than firstspeed 108. The media guidance application may reduce the fast-forwardingspeed to second speed 118 slower than first speed 108 to allow the usermore time to react when the user determines to resume playback at aspecific point in the fast-forward operation. For example, when themedia guidance application detects an approaching frame of interest, themedia guidance application may reduce the fast-forwarding speed tosecond speed 118 (e.g., 1.5×) slower than first speed 108 (e.g., 3×).The media guidance application may calculate second speed 118 based onthe user's reaction time.

In some embodiments, when determining second speed 118, the mediaguidance application may retrieve, from a profile for the user, aplurality of reaction times of the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from a profile for the user, a plurality ofreaction times of the user (e.g., reaction times related to when theuser resumes playback of media asset 102).

In some embodiments, when retrieving, from the profile for the user, theplurality of reaction times of the user, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve, from a database, a plurality of data entries correspondingto rewind operations, where each rewind operation was initiated by theuser within a predetermined time after the user issued an operation toresume playback during a fast-forward operation. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the predetermined time from the profile (e.g.,from the user preferences). The media guidance application may determinethat the predetermined time is editor-defined, and may be adjusted basedon user input. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve,from a database that stores command histories, a plurality of dataentries that correspond to rewind operations within a predetermined timeretrieved from the user preference in the profile (e.g., the last twoweeks of data entries).

In some embodiments, when retrieving, from the profile for the user, theplurality of reaction times of the user, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve, from a database, a plurality of data entries correspondingto rewind operations, where each rewind operation was initiated by theuser within a predetermined time after the user issued an operation toresume playback during a fast-forward operation. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from the database, the plurality of dataentries corresponding to rewind operations, based on the type of rewindoperation (e.g., the user rewinding content with a remote controller,the user rewinding content based on a voice command, or a combination ofthe both). For example, if the user issued a voice command tofast-forward, the media guidance application may retrieve a plurality ofdata entries corresponding to rewind operations issued by voice commandsfrom the user.

The media guidance application may determine, from a data entry in theplurality of data entries, a number of frames in a plurality of framesthat the user rewinds through before resuming playback of media asset102. The media guidance application may determine the number of framesthat the user rewinds through before resuming playback by determiningthe total rewound time of playback of media asset 102 (e.g., calculatedfrom the time stamps of the media asset from the time in playback of thestart of the rewind to the time in playback when playback resumes). Themedia guidance application may retrieve the frame rate (e.g., frames persecond (fps)) of media asset 102 from the metadata for media asset 102(e.g., the frames per second may be 24 fps, 48 fps, 60 fps, etc.). Themedia guidance application may calculate from the fps for media asset102 and the total rewind time of playback of media asset 102 the numberof frames that the user rewinds through before resuming playback ofmedia asset 102.

For example, the media guidance application may determine the number offrames that the user rewinds through by calculating the total time thatthe user rewinds media asset 102 in one instance of rewinding using timestamp data (e.g., rewound from 1 hour 45 min 50 sec to 1 hour 45 min 20sec for a total of 30 seconds of playback time rewound). The mediaguidance application may retrieve the fps of media asset 102 (e.g., KillBill Vol. 1) from the metadata (e.g., 24 fps for Kill Bill Vol. 1). Themedia guidance application may calculate from the fps for media asset102 (e.g., 24 fps) and the total rewound time of playback of media asset102 (e.g., 30 seconds), the number of frames that the user rewindsthrough before resuming playback of media asset 102 (e.g., 24 fps×30sec=720 frames).

The media guidance application may determine from the number of framesthe plurality of reaction times. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine the plurality of reaction times from thenumber of frames by assigning each number of frames from a unique rewindoperation to be a reaction time.

In some embodiments when the media guidance application calculates, fromthe reaction times, the estimated reaction time of the user, the mediaguidance application may determine, from a data entry corresponding to acommand, a length of time of the rewind operation. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the data entry, from a command history databasein the profile, a first-time stamp for the command corresponding to theuser rewinding media asset 102 and a second-time stamp corresponding tothe user resuming playback. The media guidance application may calculatethe length of time of the rewind option from the first-time stamp andsecond-time stamp (e.g., by subtracting the first-time stamp from thesecond-time stamp). For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a data entry from the command history database corresponding tothe rewind commands (e.g., the rewind command and the resume playbackcommand). The media guidance application may determine from a first-timestamp for the command corresponding to the user rewinding media asset102 (e.g., 10:45:30 (hour:min:sec)) and a second-time stamp for thecommand corresponding to the user resuming playback (e.g., 10:45:45(hour:min:sec)) a length of time of the rewind (e.g.,10:45:45-10:45:30=15 seconds).

The media guidance application may calculate, from the number of framesand the length of time of the rewind operation, a reaction time of theuser in a plurality of reaction times of the user. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the speed at which the user rewinds the contentfrom the command history database in the profile. The media guidanceapplication may calculate, using the number of frames and the length oftime, the user chosen rewind speed. The media guidance application maycalculate the rewind speed by dividing the number of frames by the fpsof media asset 102 to determine the amount of playback time of mediaasset 102 that was rewound (e.g., dividing 240 frames by 24 fpsresulting in 10 seconds of playback time). The media guidanceapplication may then divide the playback time with the rewind time todetermine the rewind speed (e.g., divide 10 seconds by 5 seconds ofrewind time for a rewind speed of 2×). The media guidance applicationmay determine that the reaction time is the playback time at a givenrewind speed (e.g., 10 seconds at a rewind speed of 2×).

The media guidance application may determine, from the plurality ofreaction times of the user, an average reaction time of the user,wherein the average reaction time is the estimated reaction time. Themedia guidance application may calculate the average reaction time ofthe user by summing the plurality of reaction times of the user and thendividing the result of the summation by the total number of reactiontimes. For example, the media guidance application may determine fromthe plurality of reaction times of the user (e.g., 1 second, 1.5seconds, 2 seconds, 0.5 seconds, 1 second) and the plurality of rewindspeeds (e.g., 3×, 2×, 5×, 1.5×, 1.5×) an average reaction time of theuser (e.g., 1 second at 2.6× (the calculated average rewind speed)).

The media guidance application may calculate, from the reaction times,an estimated reaction time of the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may calculate the average reaction time of the user anddetermine that the estimated reaction time of the user is the averagereaction time of the user. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the estimated reaction time of the useris influenced by the age of the user, or the time of day when the useris viewing playback of media asset 102, or any combination of the two.

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application is calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time of the user, themedia guidance application may retrieve, from a profile for the user, acurrent age of the user. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve, from the profile for the user, the current age of the user(e.g., 75 years old).

The media guidance application may retrieve, from the profile, at leastone reaction time of the user when an age of the user was the currentage of the user. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve, from the profile, at least one reaction time (e.g., 3 seconds)when the age of the user was the current age of the user (e.g., 75 yearsold).

The media guidance application may adjust the reaction time of the userto an adjusted reaction time based on the current age of the user. Themedia guidance application may retrieve, from a database of adjustmentdata, an adjustment value corresponding to the current age of the user.The media guidance application may determine that the values within theadjustment data are defined by an editor, and may be adjusted via userinput. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve, from adatabase of adjustment data, an adjustment value (e.g., 3 seconds)corresponding to the current age of the user (e.g., 75 years old). Themedia guidance application may adjust the reaction time of the user(e.g., 3 seconds at 2.5×) to an adjusted reaction time (e.g., 5 secondsat 2.5×) based on the current age of the user (e.g., 75 years old).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe adjustment values increase as the user's age increase. For example,the media guidance application may determine that the editor-definedadjustment value for a 30-year-old user is zero seconds, while theeditor-defined adjustment value for a 60-year-old user is 4 seconds.

The media guidance application may assign the adjusted reaction time tobe the estimated reaction time of the user. The media guidanceapplication may update the value of the estimated reaction time in theprofile to be the adjusted reaction time. For example, the mediaguidance application may assign the adjusted reaction time to be theestimated reaction time (e.g., 5 seconds).

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application is calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time of the user, themedia guidance application may determine a time when the command fromthe user to fast-forward through media asset 102 was received. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine the time (e.g., 11pm) when the command from the user to fast-forward through media asset102 was received.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a database of times,where each time has a corresponding reaction time factor, a reactiontime factor. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine that the reaction time factor may be editor-defined. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve, from a database oftimes, an editor-defined reaction time factor (e.g., a reaction timefactor of 1.5× for 11 pm). In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the reaction time factor may beeditor-defined and dependent on the method of the command (e.g., from aremote controller, a voice command, or a combination of the both). Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve, from a database oftimes, an editor-defined reaction time factor based on the method of thecommand (e.g., the user issued a voice command to fast-forward).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may calculate thereaction time factor based on the user's command history. The mediaguidance application may retrieve reaction times of the usercorresponding to the time of day (e.g., 11 pm) when the command from theuser to fast-forward through media asset 102 was received. The mediaguidance application may compare the reaction times of the usercorresponding to the time of day with the user's default reaction time(e.g., stored in the profile and may be the user's overall averagereaction time). The media guidance application may determine that thedifference between the user's time-of-day reaction times and the defaultreaction time is the reaction time factor.

The media guidance application may calculate, using the reaction timefactor and the reaction times, a corresponding reaction time, where thecorresponding reaction time is the estimated reaction time. For example,the media guidance application may calculate, using the reaction timefactor (e.g., 1.5×) and the reaction times (e.g., 2 seconds), acorresponding reaction time (e.g., 3 seconds).

In response to calculating the estimated reaction time of the user, themedia guidance application may determine second speed 118 from theestimated reaction time of the user. The media guidance application mayretrieve, from an editor-defined speed database in the profile (e.g., alookup table), second speed 118 that corresponds to the estimatedreaction time of the user (e.g., the estimated reaction time at theaverage rewind speed). For example, the media guidance application maydetermine second speed 118 by retrieving, from the speed database in theprofile, second speed 118 (e.g., 1.2×) that corresponds to the estimatedreaction time of the user (e.g., 3 seconds at 2×). The media guidanceapplication may determine that the editor-defined speed database isgenerated based on machine learning.

The media guidance application may receive a command to resume playbackfrom the user while the fast-forwarding operation is occurring at secondspeed 118. For example, the media guidance application may receive acommand to resume playback (e.g., the user presses the “play” button ona remote controller) from the user while the fast-forwarding operationis occurring at second speed 118.

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application receives thecommand to resume playback from the user while the fast-forwardingoperation is occurring at second speed 118, the media guidanceapplication may determine a threshold number of frames, wherein thethreshold number of frames is a predetermined number of frames beforeframe of interest 132 to the viewer. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine the threshold number of frames (e.g., 100)based on the user's command history before frame of interest 132 to theviewer.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve, from acommand history database in the profile, the user's fast-forward commanddata near frames of interest. The media guidance application maydetermine instances of the user issuing a fast-forwarding command beforea frame of interest. The media guidance application may determine thatthe threshold number of frames is the average number of frames fromwhere the user issues a fast-forward command before a frame of interest.

The media guidance application may determine that the user does not sendthe command to resume playback within the threshold number of frames.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the userdoes not send the command to resume playback (e.g., the user does notpress the “play” button on the remote controller) within the thresholdnumber of frames (e.g., 100).

The media guidance application may increase the fast-forwarding speedfrom second speed 118 to first speed 108. For example, the mediaguidance application may increase the fast-forward speed from secondspeed 118 (e.g., 1.5×) to first speed 108 (e.g., 3×).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive acommand from the user that overrides the command to fast-forward atsecond speed 118. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a command from the user that overrides the command tofast-forward at second speed 118 (e.g., the user presses the“fast-forward” button on the remote controller).

The media guidance application may determine, based on the overridecommand, a third speed. The media guidance application may determine thethird speed using similar methods as described above for determiningfirst speed 108. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on the override command (e.g., how many times the userhas pressed the “fast-forward” button), a third speed (e.g., 2×).

The media guidance application may increase the fast-forwarding speedfrom second speed 118 to the third speed. For example, the mediaguidance application may increase the fast-forwarding speed from secondspeed 118 (e.g., 1.5×) to the third speed (e.g., 2×).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate anoverlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126, or 130) to be displayed overa portion of media asset 102 containing a frame of media asset 102. Themedia guidance application may determine frames that help enhance theuser's knowledge of media asset 102 and upcoming segments in playback.

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application reduces thefast-forwarding to second speed 118, the media guidance application maydetermine a threshold number of frames from a current frame, where theframe is a potential frame of interest. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve the threshold number of frames from the current frame fromthe profile. The media guidance application may determine that thethreshold number of frames from the current frame is an editor-definedvalue. For example, the media guidance application may determine athreshold number of frames (e.g., 100 frames) from a current frame,where the frame is a potential frame of interest (e.g., a frame showingan action scene in Kill Bill Volume 1).

The media guidance application may generate for display the potentialframe of interest within an overlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126,or 130) on top of media asset 102. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display the potential frame of interest(e.g., the frame showing an action scene in Kill Bill Volume 1) withinan overlay on top of media asset 102 (e.g., an overlay on top of theKill Bill Volume 1 movie). The media guidance application may determinethe potential frame of interest from preferences for the user andmetadata for media asset 102.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve, fromthe profile, preferences for the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from the profile, preferences for the user(e.g., the user's favorite genres, actors/actresses, social mediapreferences, etc.).

The media guidance application may determine, from metadata for at leastone frame within a plurality of frames, characteristics of the frame.For example, the media guidance application may determinecharacteristics of the frame from the metadata (e.g., title, genre,etc.) of the frame.

The media guidance application may compare the characteristics of the atleast one frame with the preferences for the user. For example, themedia guidance application may compare the characteristics of the atleast one frame (e.g., actors/actresses in the frame, genre, scene,etc.) with the preferences for the user (e.g., user's favoriteactors/actresses).

The media guidance application may determine, from the comparison, thepotential frame of interest. The media guidance application maydetermine that the potential frame of interest are frames where thepreferences for the user are found in the metadata. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the frame that containsthe user's favorite actress (e.g., Lucy Liu) is the potential frame ofinterest.

The media guidance application may generate for display a previewoverlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126, 130) over media asset 102.For example, the media guidance application may generate for display apreview overlay (e.g., an overlay displaying an image over the middle ofmedia asset 102 being displayed) over media asset 102 (e.g., Kill BillVol. 1).

The media guidance application may generate for display, in the previewoverlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126, 130), frames later in timethan a current point of the fast-forwarding operation, where the framesin the preview overlay are updated according to a preview frequency thatis set to an initial preview frequency. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve the initial preview frequency from the profile, where theinitial preview frequency is a default value defined by an editor thatmay be updated via user input.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe frames later in time are potential frames of interest, as describedabove. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinethat the frames later in time are always a preset (e.g., editor-defined)number of frames ahead of the current frame (e.g., always 100 framesahead).

For example, the media guidance application may generate for display, inthe preview overlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126, 130), frames(e.g., potential frames of interest) later in time (e.g., the Crazy 88fight scene) than a current point of the fast-forward operation (e.g.,the Bride waking up from her coma), wherein the frames in the previewoverlay are updated according to a preview frequency (e.g., once every 5seconds) that is set to an initial preview frequency (e.g., once every 5seconds).

The media guidance application may detect that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a first frequency threshold of frameof interest 132 (e.g., positions 120, 124, 128). The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the first frequency threshold from the profile,where the first frequency threshold is a default value defined by aneditor that may be updated via user input. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a first frequency threshold (e.g.,within 2 minutes) of the frame of interest.

In response to detecting that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within the first frequency threshold of frame of interest132, the media guidance application may adjust the preview frequency sothat frames in the preview overlay are changed more often than when atthe initial preview frequency (e.g., at positions 110 and 114). Forexample, the media guidance application may adjust the preview frequencyso that frames in the preview overlay are changed more often (e.g., onceevery second at positions 120, 124, and 128) than when at the initialpreview frequency (e.g., once every 5 seconds at positions 110 and 114).

The media guidance application may detect that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a second frequency threshold offrame of interest 132. The media guidance application may determine thatthe second frequency threshold is a default value defined by an editorthat may be updated via user input. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within a second frequency threshold of frame of interest132 (e.g., within 10 seconds).

In response to detecting that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within the second frequency threshold of frame of interest132, the media guidance application may restore the preview frequency tothe initial preview frequency. For example, the media guidanceapplication may restore the preview frequency (e.g., once every second)to the initial preview frequency (e.g., once every 5 seconds).

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 202. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3. Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5.User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5, may be used to supplementstorage 408 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may generate fordisplay the content of the displays locally on equipment device 400.This way, the processing of the instructions is performed remotely bythe server while the resulting displays are provided locally onequipment device 400. Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from theuser via input interface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remoteserver for processing and generating the corresponding displays. Forexample, equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remoteserver indicating that an up/down button was selected via inputinterface 410. The remote server may process instructions in accordancewith that input and generate a display of the application correspondingto the input (e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). Thegenerated display is then transmitted to equipment device 400 forpresentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some television equipment 502, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11×, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 516 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for modifying afast-forwarding speed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame ofinterest is detected, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 600, and any of the following processes, may beexecuted by control circuitry 404 (e.g., in a manner instructed tocontrol circuitry 404 by the media guidance application). Controlcircuitry 404 may be part of user equipment (e.g., user equipment 100,which may have any, or all of the functionality of user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and/or wirelesscommunications device 506), or of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communication network 514, or distributed overa combination of both.

At 602, control circuitry 404 receives a command from a user tofast-forward through a media asset. Control circuitry 404 may receivethe command from the user to fast-forward through media asset 102 fromuser input interface 410. For example, control circuitry 404 may receivea command from the user to fast-forward through media asset 102 fromuser input interface 410 via user television equipment 502 (e.g., aremote controller). At 604, in response to receiving the command,control circuitry 404 executes a fast-forwarding operation throughframes of the video at a first speed. For example, control circuitry 404may use processing circuitry 406 to fast-forward through playback at arate faster than normal playback.

At 606, control circuitry 404 detects that the fast-forwarding operationis approaching a frame of interest to the viewer. Control circuitry 404detects the fast-forwarding operation using similar detection methods asdescribed above. For example, control circuitry 404 may receive metadatacontaining tags corresponding to frames of interest from media guidancedata source 518. Control circuitry 404 may determine, from the metadata,that the fast-forward operation is approaching a frame of interest.

At 608, in response to detecting that the fast-forwarding operation isapproaching the frame of interest, control circuitry 404 reduces thefast-forwarding speed to a second speed slower than the first speed,where the second speed is determined based on an estimated reaction timeof the user. Control circuitry 404 determines the second speed in asimilar manner as described above. For example, control circuitry 404may retrieve the second speed from a database from storage 408 or aserver via communications network 514.

At 610, control circuitry 404 receives a command to resume playback fromthe user while the fast-forwarding operation is occurring at the secondspeed. Control circuitry 404 may receive the command from the user tofast-forward through media asset 102 from user input interface 410. Forexample, control circuitry 404 may receive a command from the user toresume playback of media asset 102 from user input interface 410 viauser television equipment 502 (e.g., a remote controller).

At 612, control circuitry 404 plays back media asset 102 at a defaultplayback speed from a point corresponding to a moment when the commandwas received. For example, control circuitry 404 may play back the mediaasset 102 at a default playback speed (e.g., at the corresponding fpsdetermined from the metadata).

At 614, control circuitry 404 plays back media asset 102 at a defaultplayback speed from a threshold number of frames before a moment whenthe command was received. Control circuitry 404 retrieves the thresholdnumber of frames from a profile from storage 408 or a server viacommunications network 514. Control circuitry 404 determines that thethreshold number of frames is editor-defined, or calculated usingsimilar methods as described above.

At 616, control circuitry 404 plays back media asset 102 at the frame ofinterest. For example, control circuitry 404 may play back media asset102 at the frame of interest (e.g., 30 frames ahead of the currentframe).

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for modifying afast-forwarding speed based on a reaction time of a user when a frame ofinterest is detected, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. At 702, control circuitry 404 receives a command from a userto fast-forward through a media asset. Control circuitry 404 may receivethe command from the user to fast-forward through media asset 102 fromuser input interface 410. For example, control circuitry 404 may receivea command from the user to fast-forward through media asset 102 fromuser input interface 410 via user television equipment 502 (e.g., aremote controller).

At 704, in response to receiving the command, control circuitry 404executes a fast-forwarding operation through frames of media asset 102at first speed 108. For example, control circuitry 404 may execute afast-forward operation through frames of media asset 102 usingprocessing circuitry 406. At 706, control circuitry 404 determineswhether the fast-forwarding operation is approaching a frame of interestto the viewer. Control circuitry 404 determines whether thefast-forwarding operation is approaching a frame of interest to theviewer using similar methods as described above.

If, at 706, control circuitry 404 determines that “No,” thefast-forwarding operation is not approaching a frame of interest, thenprocess 706 reverts to process 704.

If, at 706, control circuitry 404 determines that “Yes,” thefast-forwarding operation is approaching a frame of interest, thenprocess 706 reverts to process 708. At 708, control circuitry 404reduces the fast-forwarding speed to second speed 118 slower than firstspeed 108. For example, control circuitry 404 may reduce thefast-forwarding speed to a second speed (e.g., 1.5×) slower than thefirst speed (e.g., 3×).

At 710, control circuitry 404 determines second speed 118 by retrieving,from a profile for the user, a plurality of reaction times of the user.Control circuitry 404 retrieves the plurality of reaction times for aprofile stored in storage 408, or on a remote server via communicationsnetwork 514. For example, control circuitry 404 retrieves, from theprofile stored in storage 408, a plurality of reaction times of theuser.

At 712, control circuitry 404 calculates, from the reaction times, anestimated reaction time of the user. For example, control circuitry 404uses processing circuitry 406 to calculate the estimated reaction timeof the user, using the methods described in detail above. At 714, inresponse to calculating the estimated reaction time of the user, controlcircuitry 404 determines second speed 118 from the estimated reactiontime of the user. Control circuitry 404 retrieves, from a database(e.g., a lookup table) in storage 408 or from a remote server viacommunications network 514, second speed 118 that corresponds to theestimated reaction time of the user.

At 716, control circuitry 404 determines a potential frame of interestthat is a threshold number of frames from a current frame. Controlcircuitry 404 determines the potential frame of interest frompreferences for the user retrieved from the user profile (e.g., storedin storage 408 or a remote server and accessed via communicationsnetwork 514) and metadata for media asset 102 retrieved from mediaguidance data source 518.

At 718, control circuitry 404 retrieves, from the profile, preferencesfor the user. For example, control circuitry 404 may retrievepreferences for the user stored in storage 408 or a remote server andaccessed via communications network 514. At 720, control circuitry 404determines, from metadata for at least one frame within a plurality offrames, characteristics of the frame. For example, control circuitry 404may determine the characteristics of the frame (e.g., actors/actresspresent, genre, etc.) by processing the metadata with processingcircuitry 406.

At 722, control circuitry 404 may compare the characteristics of the atleast one frame with the preferences for the user. For example, controlcircuitry 404 may compare the characteristics of the at least one frame(e.g., actors/actress present in the frame, plot associated with theframe, genre, etc.) with the preference for the user (e.g., the user'sfavorite actor/actress, favorite genre, favorite plot in media asset102, etc.). At 724, control circuitry 404 determines, from thecomparison, the potential frame of interest. For example, controlcircuitry 404 may determine, from the comparison, the potential frame ofinterest using similar methods as described above (e.g., a frame thathas the user's favorite actress in it).

At 726, control circuitry 404 generates for display the potential frameof interest within an overlay (e.g., overlays 112, 116, 122, 126, or 130on top of media asset 102). Control circuitry 404 generates the overlayon display 412 of user television equipment 502. At 728, controlcircuitry 404 receives a command from the user. Control circuitry 404may receive the command from user input interface 410. For example,control circuitry 404 may receive a command from the user tofast-forward through media asset 102 from user input interface 410 viauser television equipment 502 (e.g., a remote controller).

At 730, control circuitry 404 determines whether the command from theuser to resume playback is received while the fast-forwarding operationis occurring at the second speed.

If, at 730, control circuitry 404 determines that “No,” the command fromthe user to resume playback is received while the fast-forwardingoperation is occurring at the second speed, process 730 reverts toprocess 728. If, at 730, control circuitry 404 determines that “Yes,”the command from the user to resume playback is received while thefast-forwarding operation is occurring at the second speed, process 730proceeds to process 732. At 732, control circuitry 404 plays back mediaasset 102 at a default playback speed from a point corresponding to amoment when the command was received. For example, control circuitry 404plays back the media asset at a default playback speed (e.g., 24 fps)from a point corresponding to a moment when the command was received(e.g., from user input interface 410).

At 734, control circuitry 404 determines whether the command from theuser overrides the command to fast-forward at second speed 118. Forexample, control circuitry 404 may determine whether the command fromthe user overrides the command to fast-forward at second speed 118 bydetermining whether the command corresponds to a fast-forward commandreceived from user input interface 410.

If, at 734, control circuitry 404 determines that “No,” the command fromthe user does not override the command to fast-forward at the secondspeed, then process 734 reverts to process 728. If, at 734, controlcircuitry 404 determines that “Yes,” the command from the user doesoverride the command to fast-forward at the second speed, then process734 proceeds to process 736. At 736, control circuitry 404 determines,based on the override command, a third speed. For example, controlcircuitry 404 may determine, based on the override command (e.g., afast-forward command via user input interface 410), a third speed (e.g.,3× the normal speed). Control circuitry 404 determines the third speedusing similar methods as described above. At 738, control circuitry 404increases the fast-forwarding speed from the second speed to the thirdspeed. For example, control circuitry 404 may increase the fast-forwardspeed from the second speed (e.g., 1.5×) to the third speed (e.g., 3×).

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for retrieving,from the profile for the user, the plurality of reaction times of theuser, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 802, control circuitry 404 retrieves, from a database, a plurality ofdata entries corresponding to rewind operations, where each rewindoperation was initiated by the user within a predetermined time afterthe user issued an operation to resume playback during a fast-forwardoperation. Control circuitry 404 retrieves the database from storage 408or from a remote server via network communications 514.

At 804, control circuitry 404, determines from a data entry in theplurality of data entries, a number of frames in a plurality of framesthat the user rewinds through before resuming playback of media asset102. Control circuitry 404 determines the number of frames that the userrewinds through before resuming playback of media asset 102 usingsimilar methods as described above. For example, control circuitry 404may determine the number of frames that the user rewinds through beforeresuming playback (e.g., 240 frames). At 806, control circuitry 404determines from the number of frames the plurality of reaction times.Control circuitry 404 determines the plurality of reaction times fromthe number of frames using similar methods as described above.

At 808, control circuitry 404 determines, from the data entry, a lengthof time of the rewind operation. Control circuitry 404 calculates, usingprocessing circuitry 406, from the data entry, the length of time of therewind operation. For example, control circuitry 404 calculates, usingprocessing circuitry 406, from the time stamps corresponding to therewind command and the resume playback command, the length of time ofthe rewind operation, as described in detail above. At 810, controlcircuitry 404 calculates, from the number of frames and the length oftime of the rewind operation, a reaction time of the user in a pluralityof reaction times of the user. Control circuitry 404 calculates thereaction time of the user using similar methods as described above.

At 812, control circuitry 404 determines, from the plurality of reactiontimes of the user, an average reaction time of the user, wherein theaverage reaction time is the estimated reaction time. Control circuitry404 calculates the average reaction time of the user from the pluralityof reaction times using processing circuitry 406. At 814, controlcircuitry 404 retrieves, from a profile for the user, a current age ofthe user. Control circuitry retrieves the current age of the user fromthe profile stored in storage 406 or from a remote server viacommunications network 514. For example, control circuitry 404 mayretrieve the user's age (e.g., 75 years old) from the profile in storage406.

At 816, control circuitry 404 retrieves, from the profile, at least onereaction time of the user when an age of the user was the current age ofthe user. Control circuitry retrieves the at least one reaction time ofthe user when an age of the user was the current age of the user fromthe profile stored in storage 406 or from a remote server viacommunications network 514. For example, control circuitry 404 mayretrieve from storage 406 the at least one reaction time of the usercorresponding to the user's current age.

At 818, control circuitry 404 adjusts the reaction time of the user toan adjusted reaction time based on the current age of the user. Controlcircuitry 404 adjusts the reaction time of the user to the adjustedreaction time based on the current age using the methods describedabove. At 820, control circuitry 404 assigns the adjusted reaction timeto be the estimated reaction time of the user. For example, controlcircuitry 404 may save the adjusted reaction time as the estimatedreaction time in storage 408 or on a remote server via communicationsnetwork 514.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. At 902, control circuitry 404retrieves, from a profile for the user, a current age of the user.Control circuitry 404 retrieves the current age of the user from theprofile stored in storage 408, or from a remote server accessed viacommunications network 514. At 904, control circuitry 404 retrieves,from the profile, at least one reaction time of the user when an age ofthe user was the current age of the user. Control circuitry 404retrieves the reaction time of the user from the profile stored instorage 408, or from a remote server accessed via communications network514. For example, control circuitry 404 may retrieve the reaction timeof the user (e.g., 10 seconds at 2× speed) from the profile stored on aremote server via communications network 514.

At 906, control circuitry 404 adjusts the reaction time of the user toan adjusted reaction time based on the current age of the user. Controlcircuitry 404 retrieves the adjustment factor from a database store instorage 408, or from a remote server accessed via communications network514. Control circuitry calculates, using processing circuitry 406, theadjusted reaction time using the adjustment factor, as described indetail above. At 908, control circuitry 404 assigns the adjustedreaction time to be the estimated reaction time of the user. Controlcircuitry 404 saves the adjusted reaction time as the estimated reactiontime in the profile in storage 408 or on a remote server viacommunications network 514.

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for calculating,from the reaction times, the estimated reaction time, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. At 1002, control circuitry 404determines a time when the command from the user to fast-forward throughthe media asset was received. Control circuitry 404 retrieves the timefrom a command history database from storage 408, or from a remoteserver via communications network 514.

At 1004, control circuitry 404 retrieves, from a database of times,where each time has a corresponding reaction time factor, a reactiontime factor. Control circuitry 1004 retrieves, from a database stored instorage 408 or stored on a remote server and retrieved viacommunications network 514, a reaction time factor for the time. Forexample, control circuitry 404 may retrieve a reaction time factor(e.g., 2 seconds) for the time (e.g., 11 pm) from storage 408. At 1006,control circuitry 404 calculates, using the reaction time factor and thereaction times, a corresponding reaction time, wherein the correspondingreaction time is the estimated reaction time. Control circuitry 404calculates the corresponding reaction time using similar methods asdescribed above.

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for receiving thecommand to resume playback from the user while the fast-forwardingoperation is occurring at the second speed, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. At 1102, control circuitry 404 determinesa threshold number of frames, where the threshold number of frames is apredetermined number of frames before the frame of interest to theviewer. Control circuitry 404 retrieves the threshold number of framesfrom a database in storage 408 or from a database stored on a remoteserver via communications network 514.

At 1104, control circuitry 404 determines that the user does not sendthe command to resume playback within the threshold number of frames.For example, control circuitry 404 may determine that the user does notsend a command to resume playback via user input interface 410 on usertelevision equipment 502 (e.g., a remote controller). At 1106, controlcircuitry 404 increases the fast-forwarding speed from second speed 118to first speed 108. For example, control circuitry 404 increases thefast-forwarding speed from second speed 118 (e.g., 1.5×) to first speed108 (e.g., 3×).

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for executing thefast-forwarding operation, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. At 1202, control circuitry 404 generates for display apreview overlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126, or 130) over mediaasset 102. At 1204, control circuitry 404 generates for display, in thepreview overlay, frames later in time than a current point of thefast-forwarding operation, where the frames in the preview overlay areupdated according to a preview frequency that is set to an initialpreview frequency. Control circuitry 404 generates the preview overlayto be displayed on display 412. At 1206, control circuitry 404 detectsthat the current point of the fast-forwarding operation is within afirst frequency threshold of the frame of interest. Control circuitry404 detects that the current point of the fast-forwarding operation iswithin a first frequency threshold of the frame of interest usingsimilar methods as described above.

At 1208, control circuitry 404 determines whether the current point ofthe fast-forwarding operation is within a first frequency threshold ofthe frame of interest. If, at 1208 control circuitry 404 determines that“No,” the current point of the fast-forwarding operation is not within afirst frequency threshold of the frame of interest, process 1208 revertsto process 1204. If, at 1208 control circuitry 404 determines that“Yes,” the current point of the fast-forwarding operation is within afirst frequency threshold of the frame of interest, process 1208proceeds to process 1210.

At 1210, control circuitry 404 adjusts the preview frequency so thatframes in the preview overlay (e.g., overlay 112, 116, 122, 126, 130)are changed more often than when at the initial preview frequency.Control circuitry 404 retrieves frames from media content source 516 todisplay in the preview overlay on display 412 at a higher frequency thanthe initial preview frequency. At 1212, control circuitry 404 determineswhether the current point of the fast-forwarding operation is within asecond frequency threshold of the frame of interest. Control circuitry404 detects that the current point of the fast-forwarding operation iswithin a second frequency threshold of the frame of interest usingsimilar methods as described above.

If, at 1212 control circuitry 404 determines that “No,” the currentpoint of the fast-forwarding operation is not within a second frequencythreshold of the frame of interest, process 1212 reverts to 1210. If, at1212 control circuitry 404 determines that “Yes,” the current point ofthe fast-forwarding operation is within a second frequency threshold ofthe frame of interest, process 1212 reverts to 1214. At 1214, controlcircuitry 404 restores the preview frequency to the initial previewfrequency.

It should be noted that processes 600-1200 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 1 and4-5. For example, any of processes 600-1200 may be executed by controlcircuitry 404 (FIG. 4) as instructed by control circuitry implemented onuser equipment 502, 504, 506 (FIG. 5), and/or a user equipment devicefor selecting a recommendation. In addition, one or more steps ofprocesses 600-1200 may be incorporated into or combined with one or moresteps of any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 6-12may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 6-12 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 1 and 4-5 could be used to perform one or more of the steps inFIGS. 6-12.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Theprocessing circuitry, for instance may be a general purpose processor, acustomized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmablegate array (FPGA) within user equipment 400, media content source 516,or media guidance data source 518. For example, a profile, as describedherein, may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 408 of FIG. 4, ormedia guidance data source 518 of FIG. 5. Furthermore, processingcircuitry, or a computer program, may update settings of user equipment100 stored within storage 408 of FIG. 4 or media guidance data source518 of FIG. 5.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to “relatedart” or “convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose ofproviding context to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, anddoes not form any admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: detecting that afast-forwarding operation is approaching a frame of interest; inresponse to detecting that the fast-forwarding operation is approachingthe frame of interest, reducing a fast-forwarding speed to a secondspeed slower than a first speed, wherein the second speed is determinedby: retrieving, from a profile of a user, a plurality of reaction times,wherein the plurality of reaction times are mapped corresponding to acurrent age of the user; calculating, from the reaction times, anestimated reaction time of the user; and in response to calculating theestimated reaction time of the user, calculating the second speed fromthe estimated reaction time of the user; receiving a command to resumeplayback from the user while the fast-forwarding operation is occurringat the second speed; and playing back the media asset at a defaultplayback speed from a point corresponding to a moment when the commandwas received.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving, from theprofile for the user, the plurality of reaction times corresponding to acurrent age of the user comprises: retrieving, from a database, aplurality of data entries corresponding to rewind operations, whereineach rewind operation was initiated by the user within a predeterminedtime after the user issued an operation to resume playback during afast-forward operation; determining from a data entry in the pluralityof data entries, a number of frames in a plurality of frames that theuser rewinds through before resuming playback of the media asset; anddetermining from the number of frames the plurality of reaction timescorresponding to the current age of the user.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein calculating, from the reaction times, an estimated reaction timeof the user comprises: determining, from the data entry, a length oftime of the rewind operation; calculating, from the number of frames andthe length of time of the rewind operation, a reaction time of the userin a plurality of reaction times corresponding to a current age of theuser; and determining, from the plurality of reactions timescorresponding to a current age of the user, an average reaction time ofthe user, wherein the average reaction time is the estimated reactiontime.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the command to resumeplayback from the user while the fast-forwarding operation is occurringat the second speed comprises: determining a threshold number of frames,wherein the threshold number of frames is a predetermined number offrames before the frame of interest to the viewer; determining that theuser does not send the command to resume playback within the thresholdnumber of frames; and increasing the fast-forwarding speed from thesecond speed to the first speed.
 5. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: receiving a command from the user that overrides the commandto fast-forward at the second speed; and increasing the fast-forwardingspeed from the second speed to the first speed.
 6. The method of claim2, further comprising: receiving a command from the user that overridesthe command to fast-forward at the second speed; determining, based onthe override command, a third speed; and increasing the fast-forwardingspeed from the second speed to the third speed.
 7. The method of claim2, further comprising: determining a potential frame of interest that isa threshold number of frames from a current frame while thefast-forwarding is reduced to the second speed; and generating fordisplay the potential frame of interest within an overlay on top of themedia asset.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: retrieving,from the profile, preferences for the user; determining, from metadatafor at least one frame within a plurality of frames, characteristics ofthe frame; comparing the characteristics of the at least one frame withthe preferences for the user; and determining, from the comparison, thepotential frame of interest.
 9. The method of claim 2, wherein executingthe fast-forwarding operation further comprises: generating for displaya preview overlay over the media asset; generating for display, in thepreview overlay, frames later in time than a current point of thefast-forwarding operation, wherein the frames in the preview overlay areupdated according to a preview frequency that is set to an initialpreview frequency; detecting that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a first frequency threshold of theframe of interest; in response to detecting that the current point ofthe fast-forwarding operation is within the first frequency threshold ofthe frame of interest, adjusting the preview frequency so that frames inthe preview overlay are changed more often than when at the initialpreview frequency; detecting that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within a second frequency threshold of theframe of interest; and in response to detecting that the current pointof the fast-forwarding operation is within the second frequencythreshold of the frame of interest, restoring the preview frequency tothe initial preview frequency.
 10. A system comprising: user inputcircuitry; memory, wherein the memory stores a plurality of reactiontimes mapped to a current age of the user; and control circuitryconfigured to: detect that a fast-forwarding operation is approaching aframe of interest; in response to detecting that the fast-forwardingoperation is approaching the frame of interest, reduce a fast-forwardingspeed to a second speed slower than a first speed, wherein the secondspeed is determined by: retrieve, from a profile of a user, a pluralityof reaction times corresponding to the current age of the user;calculate, from the reaction times, an estimated reaction time of theuser; and in response to calculating the estimated reaction time of theuser, calculate the second speed from the estimated reaction time of theuser; receive a command to resume playback from the user while thefast-forwarding operation is occurring at the second speed; and playback the media asset at a default playback speed from a pointcorresponding to a moment when the command was received.
 11. The systemof claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, whenretrieving, from the profile for the user, the plurality of reactiontimes corresponding to a current age of the user, to: retrieve, from adatabase, a plurality of data entries corresponding to rewindoperations, wherein each rewind operation was initiated by the userwithin a predetermined time after the user issued an operation to resumeplayback during a fast-forward operation; determine from a data entry inthe plurality of data entries, a number of frames in a plurality offrames that the user rewinds through before resuming playback of themedia asset; and determine from the number of frames the plurality ofreaction times corresponding to the current age of the user.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein control circuitry is further configured,when calculating, from the reaction times, an estimated reaction time ofthe user, to: determine, from the data entry, a length of time of therewind operation; calculate, from the number of frames and the length oftime of the rewind operation, a reaction time of the user in a pluralityof reaction times corresponding to a current age of the user; anddetermine, from the plurality of reactions times corresponding to acurrent age of the user, an average reaction time of the user, whereinthe average reaction time is the estimated reaction time.
 13. The systemof claim 10, wherein control circuitry is further configured, whenreceiving the command to resume playback from the user while thefast-forwarding operation is occurring at the second speed, to:determine a threshold number of frames, wherein the threshold number offrames is a predetermined number of frames before the frame of interestto the viewer; determine that the user does not send the command toresume playback within the threshold number of frames; and increase thefast-forwarding speed from the second speed to the first speed.
 14. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein control circuitry is further configured to:receive a command from the user that overrides the command tofast-forward at the second speed; and increase the fast-forwarding speedfrom the second speed to the first speed.
 15. The system of claim 10,wherein control circuitry is further configured to: receive a commandfrom the user that overrides the command to fast-forward at the secondspeed; determine, based on the override command, a third speed; andincrease the fast-forwarding speed from the second speed to the thirdspeed.
 16. The system of claim 10, wherein control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: determine a potential frame of interest that is athreshold number of frames from a current frame while thefast-forwarding is reduced to the second speed; and generating fordisplay the potential frame of interest within an overlay on top of themedia asset.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein control circuitry isfurther configured to: retrieve, from the profile, preferences for theuser; determine, from metadata for at least one frame within a pluralityof frames, characteristics of the frame; compare the characteristics ofthe at least one frame with the preferences for the user; and determine,from the comparison, the potential frame of interest.
 18. The system ofclaim 10, wherein control circuitry is further configured, whenexecuting the fast-forwarding operation, to: generate for display apreview overlay over the media asset; generate for display, in thepreview overlay, frames later in time than a current point of thefast-forwarding operation, wherein the frames in the preview overlay areupdated according to a preview frequency that is set to an initialpreview frequency; detect that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within a first frequency threshold of the frame ofinterest; in response to detecting that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within the first frequency threshold of theframe of interest, adjust the preview frequency so that frames in thepreview overlay are changed more often than when at the initial previewfrequency; detect that the current point of the fast-forwardingoperation is within a second frequency threshold of the frame ofinterest; and in response to detecting that the current point of thefast-forwarding operation is within the second frequency threshold ofthe frame of interest, restore the preview frequency to the initialpreview frequency.